A CHARGE TO KEEP

Designer Demna Gvasalia looks to the past and the future with equal measure for the re-birth of couture at the illustrious French maison of Balenciaga. 

By MAX BERLINGER
Photography MARK BORTHWICK


There is no type of fashion more personal, more individual, than couture. By its definition, it is a design made to a single body’s specifications, fitted on the individual to help highlight their unique dimensions. At its best, it’s an artform that underscores a person’s sense of self, to show the distinctive aspects of their physical identity, and perhaps something a bit deeper and more nuanced. To reveal who they are, and who they want to be. 

It had been 53 years since the luxury brand Balenciaga showed couture, until July of 2021, when the current creative director, Demna Gvasalia, revived the practice. It was the first time since the house’s founder, Cristobal Balenciaga, passed away, that Balenciaga couture made its way down the catwalk. “Over half a century later, I see it as my creative duty to the unique heritage of Mr. Balenciaga to bring couture back to this house,” Gvasalia explained. “It is the very foundation of this century-old maison.”

It was worth the wait. Gvasalia bridged the gap between the collections shown in 1968 and now. He took couture - a type of making clothes that is heavily influenced by the past - and brought it boldly into the present. At the same time, he charted a path for its future, forging a new sense of identity and understanding. As Gvasalia describes it, “a very personal vision of the essence of fashion.”

When Monsieur Balenciaga was designing for his house, ballgowns and opera coats were the traditional fare of the couture. He was known for his exacting eye and ability to create new, exciting, and surprising silhouettes from tulle and chiffon. It’s why Christian Dior once said of Balenciaga, “He is the master of us all.” It’s the reason why the brand continues to enchant and seduce us all these years later. 

Gvasalia has a similarly brilliant mind, and one attuned to the ways that fashion is quickly evolving, trying to keep up with the never-ending speed of the Internet. He has understood, for instance, that hoodies and sneakers are the most culturally relevant clothing for young people, and has built a large part of his work at Balenciaga around these pieces. More than that, though, he’s created a certain mood for the brand, one that’s based on new, exciting, and surprising silhouettes – the same thing Balenciaga built his reputation on – but this time it’s parkas with bold shoulders, soupy, flowing track pants, and casual sneakers of enormous size. Over that, he’s imparted a sly irony and a foreboding sense of angst. It perfectly reflects the strange, off-kilter times in which we find ourselves. “It completes my multi-layered vision for Balenciaga the brand which ranges all the way up from streetwear into conceptual fashion and wardrobe and ultimately into one-of-a-kind, made-to-measure couture pieces.”

His debut couture collection carried that thread on from stark, meticulous tailoring that reimagined suiting not as sleek and body skimming but hulking and imposing to the dresses that were shapely and voluminous, beaded and embellished, a call back to the days of Balenciaga’s work. Many of the designs were directly referencing pieces from the archive, Gvasalia said. 

“We cannot only look to the future,” he said. “We have to look into the past to see where we’re going.” He continued, “Clothes have a psychological impact on me. I realized they make me happy – and I realized that’s the purpose of fashion. It’s not about the frenzy and buzz – and the white noise, I call it, of the digital mayhem we’re living through. The essence of it is my passion and the tools. I realized that couture is the best way to manifest it. And this is what really turns me on.”

In other words, Gvasalia is making clothing that’s not about posting on social media for likes though plenty of people do that, but to help you align with your truer self – for you to build your identity from the outside in. For the couture collection, that meant everything from oversized suits to sportswear to enormous party dresses, but more than that, it meant pursuing beauty at its highest form. “Couture is above trends, fashion and industrial dressmaking,” he said. “It is a timeless and pure expression of craft and architecture of silhouette that gives a wearer the strongest notion of elegance and sophistication.”  

At its core, couture is an artform that is about craftsmanship and integrity, and Gvasalia was able to infuse those ideas into even the most common of garments. T-shirts, for example, were made from a padded silk and, Gvasalia said, required multiple fittings. There were even blue jeans, but with the denim made in Japan and lined in silk. “Couture is the highest level of garment construction, that is not only relevant in today’s mass productive industry, but even absolutely necessary for the survival and further evolution of modern fashion.”

Some collections are beautiful and wearable, but this did something more. It spoke to the way clothing reflects the zeitgeist, revealing something about who we are right now. It spoke to our post-pandemic era, where we are all looking for clothing that is hopeful, good for the planet, and expresses something about ourselves. 

Gvasalia laid-out his plans for the couture, simply and succinctly, “It’s a trench coat. It’s a tailored suit. I will even have a couture T-shirt. I need to extend it. For couture to be modern, it has to be a wardrobe. We cannot get locked into the ballroom.”

Well, Gvasalia has certainly freed us from the confines of the ballroom. His couture collection is one made for the streets, made for real life, for real people. But that doesn’t ignore the artistry and skill that’s demanded of the couture artform, a history that is passed down through the hands of artisans who create these garments that dare to dream about beauty and life in the most whimsical and wonderful ways. It helps tell our history in jackets and pants. 

“For me, it was the beginning of a new era. I’m not talking about Balenciaga, but about myself as a designer. It was a moment I have been looking forward to and been quite afraid of.”

And then he added, “I feel at peace.”